Reading and Discussion #10

Response to Chapter 4 in "Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis" by Avila & Pandaya

1. How has social media changed reading and writing processes in the digital age?

Where in the past, critical thinking required a reader’s response to literature, the response was seldom published.  Now with social media, all readers can respond and have their comments posted next to news articles, blog entries, photos, videos, etc.  Reading has always been interactive, but now it is doubly so because all readers can make their ideas known and respond not only to the reading but to each other.

2. Explain "cosmopolitan practice" in relation to digital literacies and it means for learning in school.

From what I understand, this is an approach to interacting with the world through digital means.  Students, who are bound to become global citizens through use of worldwide social media, have to think beyond local values and interpretations of their work and communication and learn to consider how what they produce may be received by a variety of cultures.  This means educators need to equip students to think about the views and ethics of English speaking people around the world (or of whatever language they happen to be posting in).  The thing about this, is that we don’t always know the standards of other cultures and they do not know ours… so sometimes we will all learn the hard way.

3. How did the cosmopolitan conversation video challenge support critical media literacy?

I’m sorry.  I missed this in the unit somehow.

4. How does this quote from the text, "In this digital age, traditional content creation such as book reports, unit projects and essays, cannot be merely digitized and regulated to the end of the unit as capstone demonstrations of content mastery," make you think about how digital technologies should be used to support learning in school?

To me, this means that we can’t just use technology to produce traditional products and say that students are equipped for life in the 21^st century.  The technology has actually CHANGED the demands on students, and therefore the standards for what we teach them.  Digital technologies need to be integrated, and real communication with the outside world needs to be guided (as opposed to prohibited). 

5. How do the digital stories you watch this week support the concept of cosmopolitanism?

Many of the story examples we watched came from the South Pacific, but as a viewer I felt myself connecting to the ideas.  Although each product had a local flavor, I felt like the ethical standards they portrayed, mattered to a wide variety of audiences.  The “Are We Making Guam Ugly?” video was pretty universal. This shows that digital stories can adhere to cosmopolitan practices without abandoning their own unique attributes. 

6.  In a blog posting, copy and paste a quote from the text that have moved you in some way (i.e. surprised, confused, disagree, strongly agree) and in about 100-150 words state why you have selected the quote. Then find an article, video, podcast, blog posting, image related to what you have read and link to it or embed it in your Blog. Describe the resources and a brief explanation of how it is connected to the reading.

“Finally, we would not have learned about the youths’ sophisticated and layered meanings, nor their complex designing and concept-building processes, without a ‘listening’ orientation toward the youth (Shultz, 2003) itself a cosmopolitan practice (Avila & Pandaya, 2013).” 

The above quote moves me to remember that modeling cosmopolitan practices is a big part of teaching the attitudes students will need to take to creating products like digital stories.  It is not enough to tell them to be curious, be sensitive, do your research, and remember that anyone can see your work on the internet.  We have to do it ourselves by taking a ‘listening’ orientation.  This goes back to abandoning the old idea as the teacher as the keepers of knowledge, and transitioning to models of cosmopolitan behavior.  Since the Greek roots for “cosmopolitan” mean “at home in the world,” we must show students how to be at home in the world through digital media.

For more on this, I suggest people check out the following blog: “5 Insightful TED Talks on Social Media.”  I had seen the majority of these even before discovering this blog, but this is very nice collection.  It is a good resource to show students the importance of using social media well, and for having a cosmopolitan mindset when doing so.

References

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.